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Thursday, September 10, 2015

Egypt throws the dice with partial lifting of stadia ban

Ahli fans support their club in deal with security forces (Source: AP)

By James M. Dorsey

The Egyptian interior ministry, in a potential signal that the
country’s military-backed regime recognizes that its choking off of all public
space could backfire, has agreed to allow fans to attend international matches
played by the national team and Egyptian clubs.

In doing so, the ministry de facto acknowledged that it has
put itself between a rock and hard place. Many Egyptians blame the national
team’s poor performance on the fact that fans have largely not been allowed
into stadia to support their squad or their clubs since the popular revolt that
toppled President Hosni Mubarak in 2011.

The continued ban risks the government shouldering the blame
for the inability of the national team to maintain a track record of being
Africa’s most crowned squad. Egypt’s national team was crushed in June when it
was defeated 3:0 by Tanzania in a match in Alexandria from which fans were
barred.

Sports minister Khaled Abdel-Aziz said the lifting was
applicable to all home qualifiers for the 2017 African Cup of Nations and 2018
World Cup and international championship matches played by storied Cairo teams
Al Ahli SC and Al Zamalek SC, two of Africa’s top clubs.

"Fan support is crucial to Egypt's chances in the
Nations Cup and World Cup. The authorities are aware of the importance of
having the fans back in the stands," Mr. Abdel-Aziz said. Past Egyptian
governments have basked in the success of the national team and used it to
shore up their tarnished images.

The opening of international matches to the public however
risks mounting anger among militant soccer fans and student protest groups in
which the fans play a central role spilling onto the soccer pitch.

Egyptian media speculated that the ministry was testing the
waters with its decision and that the move could lead to an overall lifting of
the ban on spectators in stadia. A successful reopening of the stadia without
incidents would boost a government whose image is dominated by brutal
repression.

In calculating its risk, the ministry has several precedents
to work with. A partial lifting of the ban in February was quickly re-imposed
after some 20 fans were killed by security forces as they tried to force their
way into a Cairo stadium. The fans were protesting against the government
allowing only a limited number of people into the stadium and over manipulation
of ticket sales to control which fans gained entry.

On the plus side, militant Ahli fans voluntarily left a
stadium in November that they had occupied hours before their club was
scheduled to play an African championship. The incident was a rare example in
which Egyptian security forces agreed to a negotiated, peaceful resolution
rather than a hard-handed crackdown.

In a deal, negotiated by Al Ahli’s management the fans agreed
to leave the stadium in exchange for being allowed to attend the match, being
treated with respect rather than humiliated at security checks, and promising
not to disrupt the match. Al Ahli won the championship in a match that proceeded
without incident.

Militant fans have long been demanding a lifting of the
spectator ban. Thousands of hard-core supporters of Al Ahli and Al Zamalek have
attended their clubs’ training sessions in recent months to demonstrate that it
was not them but the security forces that were responsible for repeated violent
incidents.

The interior ministry in lifting the ban for international
matches is hoping that fans would not want to be blamed for failures of the
national team or their clubs as a result of protests and violence in the
stadium.

That remains a risky bet. Egyptian security forces have a
history of impunity in which successive governments including that of
general-turned-president Abdel Fattah Al Sisi have allowed them to get away
with mass killings of protesters, mass arrests and torture.

Successive governments, including that of Mr. Al Sisi who
staged a coup in 2013 to topple Egypt’s first and only democratically elected
president, Mohammed Morsi, a Muslim Brother, have backed away from seriously
tackling badly needed security sector reform, a key driver of Egypt’s continued
turmoil.

Despite Al Ahli’s successful negotiation of the November
crisis and management’s continued engagement with hard-line fan groups who
played a key role in the protests that toppled Mr. Mubarak and anti-government
protests since, relations between the government and some clubs and fans are
tense.

Zamalek president Mortada Mansour has accused the Ultras
White Knights (UWK), the militant Zamalek fan group, of attempting to
assassinate him and has tried to persuade the courts to ban militant soccer
support groups as terrorist organizations.

Mr. Mortada stopped just short of praising the death of 20
Zamalek supporters in the stadium incident in February but prided himself on
having requested the security force action that led to their deaths.

Large numbers of militant soccer fans are behind bars either
for soccer-related incidents or because of their role in mass anti-government
demonstrations in universities and flash protests in neighbourhood in which
they played a key role.

The limited lifting of the spectator ban potentially creates
a space for fans to let off steam and vent pent-up anger and frustration in a
country that allows for no controlled public space and has created feeding
grounds for radicalization.

The risk for politicized fans considering exploiting a rare
opportunity is not only a harsh government response, one they have grown
accustomed to, but alienating themselves from a public that is likely to see
the matches as a rare chance to get away from the daily grind.

James M.
Dorsey is a senior fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies
as Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, co-director of the Institute
of Fan Culture of the University of Würzburg and the author of the blog, The Turbulent World of Middle East Soccer, and a forthcoming book with the
same title.

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About Me

James M DorseyWelcome to The Turbulent World of Middle East Soccer by James M. Dorsey, a senior fellow at Nanyang Technological University’s S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies. Soccer in the Middle East and North Africa is played as much on as off the pitch. Stadiums are a symbol of the battle for political freedom; economic opportunity; ethnic, religious and national identity; and gender rights. Alongside the mosque, the stadium was until the Arab revolt erupted in late 2010 the only alternative public space for venting pent-up anger and frustration. It was the training ground in countries like Egypt and Tunisia where militant fans prepared for a day in which their organization and street battle experience would serve them in the showdown with autocratic rulers. Soccer has its own unique thrill – a high-stakes game of cat and mouse between militants and security forces and a struggle for a trophy grander than the FIFA World Cup: the future of a region. This blog explores the role of soccer at a time of transition from autocratic rule to a more open society. It also features James’s daily political comment on the region’s developments. Contact: incoherentblog@gmail.comView my complete profile